“Hands Free”: Adapting the Task–Technology-Fit Model and Smart Data to Validate End-User Acceptance of the Voice Activated Medical Tracking Application (VAMTA) in the United States Military

Abstract

Our extensive work on validating user acceptance of a Voice Activated Medical Tracking Applications (VAMTA) in the military medical environment was broken into two phases. First, we developed a valid instrument for obtaining user evaluations of VAMTA by conducting a pilot (2004) to study the voice-activated application with medical end-users aboard U.S. Navy ships, using this phase of the study to establish face validity. Second, we conducted an in-depth study (2009) to measure the adaptation of users to a voice activated medical tracking system in preventive healthcare in the U.S. Navy. In the latter, we adapted a task–technology-fit (TTF) model (from a smart data strategy) to VAMTA, demonstrating that the perceptions of end-users can be measured and, furthermore, that an evaluation of the system from a conceptual viewpoint can be sufficiently documented. We report both on the pilot and the in-depth study in this chapter.

The survey results from the in-depth study were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) data analysis tool to determine whether TTF, along with individual characteristics, will have an impact on user evaluations of VAMTA. In conducting this in-depth study we modified the original TTF model to allow adequate domain coverage of patient care applications.

This study provides the underpinnings for a subsequent, higher level study of nationwide medical personnel. Follow-on studies will be conducted to investigate performance and user perceptions of VAMTA under actual medical field conditions.